West Sacramento Mayor Heads To Border To Help Immigrant Children Separated From Families
SACRAMENTO (CBS13) — There's a movement in part of the Sacramento region to rescue immigrant children separated from their families at the U.S.-Mexico border.
West Sacramento Mayor Christopher Cabaldon flew to Texas Wednesday, where he met with other mayors to find a way to reunite the children with their parents.
This comes after U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions enacted a "zero tolerance" policy in April.
"This is a human issue, it's not about partisan politics. We have to put a stop to it. We are at a line we cannot cross as a country," Cabaldon said.
Cabaldon is joining other Democratic and Republican mayors across the country in the latest battle for immigration reform.
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He is going to a detention facility in Tornillo, Texas, where the Trump Administration announced immigrant children are being held after they get separated from their parents.
"We are going to focus, to shine a light on these conditions and what's happening and speak up for the people on the streets that this is wrong," Cabaldon said.
The mayor is also speaking out on behalf of concerned West Sacramentans, and the Sacramento region.
"We have to rescue these children," Cabaldon said.
On Wednesday afternoon, President Donald Trump signed an executive order ending the separation of immigrant families detained at the U.S.-Mexico border.
The issue hits home with Teresa Flores, an immigrant whose family were separated at the border years ago when they were detained.
"My dad and my mom got separated and so we were stuck, it was only my mom and the two of us," Flores said. "I can only imagine what these parents are going through right now, with the desperation and anxiety they feel."
President Trump's order doesn't mean much for local faith-based organization, Sacramento ACT. Carlos Montes-Ponce is Sacramento ACT's community organizer.
"This is still criminalizing communities, there's still a massive deportation machine," Montes-Ponce said.
Montes-Ponce said the executive order doesn't outline what happens to the thousands of children already separated from their parents.
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It's a concern equally shared by Mayor Cabaldon.
"Children lost, unaccounted for, that's what happens in military dictatorships, not what happens here," Cabaldon said.
Sacramento ACT will head down to the border Friday evening. Members will meet other organizations to rally and hold vigils to support the separated immigrant families.
That movement will continue through Sunday.
